The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance says its support for a Canada-Europe trade deal is now conditional.
The longtime enthusiastic backer of the deal says high tariffs and other headaches won’t be quickly resolved.
Claire Citeau, CAFTA’s executive director, told the Commons trade committee that it expected the deal would generate $1.5 billion in new Canadian agri-food exports to Europe.
“Today unfortunately it is clear that commercially viable access that was promised for all exporters may not be fully achieved for some time, and certainly not by the time the agreement is implemented,” she said. To work for agri-food exporters, the trade deal needs to resolve both tariff and non-tariff barriers before its implementation.
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“To date, the issues that remain outstanding include the timely approval of biotechnology traits, the timely approval and re-evaluation of crop input products, and the approval of meat-processing systems,” she said.
“CAFTA has strongly encouraged the completion of respective legal and political processes related to the deal, while simultaneously completing the technical discussions so that the stated benefits can be realized in the form of commercially viable access for our exporters.
“Today, given the slow progress that the EU is making to resolve these issues, CAFTA gives conditional support to the implementation of the CETA, with three conditions,” she added.
CAFTA represents farmers, processors, and exporters from the beef, pork, grains, oilseeds, pulse, soy, malt, and sugar sectors. Its members account for 90 per cent of Canada’s $54-billion agriculture and agri-food exports, supporting 940,000 jobs across Canada.
CAFTA wants to see the federal government commit “to a well-resourced advocacy strategy and comprehensive implementation plan for Canadian agriculture and agri-food exporters to achieve real access for all exporters. Such plans will focus on ensuring that the negotiated outcomes result in commercially viable access, including but not limited to the grains and oilseed sectors and the meat sector through the establishment of high-level working groups.”
She asked the trade committee to recommend the government keep the implementation plan in place “until such time as the market access outcomes contained in the agreement become commercially viable for all our exporters.”
CAFTA wants the government “to exert every effort to resolve as many of the outstanding technical barriers as possible during the interim period between now and the date the agreement is implemented.
“Canadian agri-food exports to the EU currently face high tariffs, with an average of 14 per cent,” Citeau said. “On Day 1 of implementation, tariffs on almost 40 per cent of products will be eliminated immediately. The tariffs are not the only part of the access equation and for some sectors non-tariff barriers are as important as tariff reductions.
“The particular issues today that we’re facing with the agreement are that non-tariff barriers are happening even before the agreement is implemented and those currently are in two very specific areas: the timely approval of biotechnology traits, and the timely approval and re-evaluation of crop input products and in that regard the European Union, as part of the deal, has committed to timely approval of those traits and currently has not done so, so this creates anxiety for our farmers.
“The second very specific issue is in the area of the approval of meat-processing plants, and specifically among others but in particular the areas of carcass washes, again, another area where the EU had committed to working together to advance these issues before the agreement is implemented but currently our farmers, our beef and pork producers, don’t have the approval they need,” she stated. “If the agreement were implemented today they would not be able to export, regardless of tariffs coming down.
“With a population of 500 million people, Europe is the second-largest importer of agri-food products in the world. In 2014 Canada shipped $3.2 billion in agriculture and agri-food products to the EU, led by wheat, soybeans, oilseeds, pulses, canola oil, frozen foods, and maple syrup. This is only about five per cent of our total agri-food exports. Really, our exports should be much higher.”
CAFTA anticipates the trade deal could result in sales of “an additional $600 million in beef, $400 million in pork, $100 million in grains and oilseeds, $100 million in sugar-containing products, and a further $300 million in processed fruits and vegetables.”
